With the chance to pull up into a tie for the final playoff spot, the Hurricanes instead ran their home losing streak to three and fell another point behind the Philadelphia Flyers who beat them 2-1 in overtime. The Hurricanes did collect an overtime loss consolation point, but that did little to lessen the sting of another loss.

An important starting point is to note that the Hurricanes compete level was better after two lackluster losses over the weekend. But at the same time, I think the game pretty clearly showed that the team just is not very good right now and will need to find a significantly higher gear pretty quickly if it wants to play hockey that matters when the playoff spots are being decided in late March and early April.

Out of the gate, the game had a slow and cautious canter to it as if it was two boxers feeling each other out with a heavy focus on not making a mistake and very little to actually attack. Up until the under 12:00 television timeout, the Hurricanes had two shots on goal and really not much of anything for quality scoring chances. But in playing a buttoned down, safe game, they did not allow the Flyers much either.

The offensive part of the game really did not even begin until the officials stepped into the action to create a massive run of power plays. Thank goodness the referees intervened because the Hurricanes generated virtually offensively all night except on the power play and in 3-on-3 action in overtime. When Brock McGinn drew a four-minute power play when he caught some combination of a high stick and/or an elbow square in the nose, the Hurricanes were in business. I actually thought the power play looked slow and sluggish moving the puck, but once it gained the offensive zone, it garnered high marks for puck possession and puck retrieval despite mostly moving slowly and firing shots into shin guards. Things took a turn for the better when Elias Lindholm continued his run of strong play at the top of the blue paint on the power play and was rewarded with a short range goal. Those two minors were two of seven penalties in a stretch of less than 20 minutes of hockey running from midway through the first period until just before the midway point of the second period. Shortly after the run of special teams play ended, the Flyers tied the score at 1-1 late in the second period when Wayne Simmonds scored from his normal post at the top of the crease after getting behind Trevor van Riemsdyk and banging in a lose puck. The second period would finish with a 1-1 score and set the stage for a tense third period.

With the run of power plays mostly over, the game reverted back to the front half of the first period with both teams playing a cautious brand of hockey. For the vast majority of the period, it looked as if the object of NHL hockey was to win the puck in your own end and then simply advance it to the offensive zone and nothing else — because for most of the third period, neither team did much of anything else. With the game on the line, the Hurricanes spent about 15 minutes in the third period in a safety shell just moving pucks forward without every really attacking. Then they spent the last 3+ minutes hemmed in their own end for two really long shifts just trying to survive.

With a grand total of two shots on goal in the third period with the game on the line and a grand total of eight 5-on-5 shots on goal for the entire game, the Hurricanes looked very much like a team that is struggling offensively and also playing not to lose.

Overtime was actually a different story. Jordan Staal won the opening face-off and the Hurricanes proceeded to play with the puck for the first 2:20 of overtime. The best chance of that sequence came when a 2-on-1 pass between Staal and Skinner just did not connect in front. Sebastian Aho then lost a face-off which saw the Hurricanes play defense for a bit before a wild finish. It all started when Jordan Staal had the puck on his stick with a gaping net in front of hi and was robbed by Flyer goalie Brian Elliott who somehow made a lunging save with the blade of his stick out of midair. Jeff Skinner fired a shot that was blocked by Claude Giroux setting the stage for a heartbreaking ending. Carrying in on a harmless looking 2-on-2 rush, Jordan Weal made an incredibly heady play recognizing that he had defenseman Jaccob Slavin in front of him and then cutting across to instead challenge forward Brock McGinn. McGinn was uncomfortable defending like a defenseman with speed coming at him and mostly just kept backing up. That left room for Weal to cut right across from left to right and then fire right through a moving Cam Ward for a soft goal to end it with 3 seconds remaining.

Ward was sound on the night but definitely would like that one back, but the bigger story was the Hurricanes continued inept play offensively. The team has now scored only once in six of their last ten games and has a 0-5-1 record in those games.

Notes from the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers

1) Power outage

The team continues to struggle mightily to generate offense and score goals, especially at even strength. As noted above, the Hurricanes have now been held to a single goal in six out of their last ten games and also in three consecutive games that were all losses. The team’s 5-on-5 shot total of eight is a concern and perhaps the ending is telling. Despite possessing the puck for the first half of overtime, the Hurricanes really only had one near miss of a chance in that time. And with the game on his stick Jordan Staal failed to assertively snap the puck up into the top third of the net where the goalie would have had no chance. Instead, a soft flip gave the goalie a chance to be a hero which is all he needed. In five games since the All-Star break, none of Jordan Staal, Jeff Skinner, Teuvo Teravainen, Justin Williams, Derek Ryan, Lee Stempniak, Victor Rask, Marcus Kruger, Joakim Nordstrom, Josh Jooris or Phil Di Giuseppe has an even strength goal. Sebastian Aho has two and Brock McGinn has one to go with one from defenseman Brett Pesce.

That makes it nearly impossible to win.

2) Out of touch with reality?

Concerning to me is Peters’ press conference that paints this game as a solid one just without the breaks necessary to win. The compete level was better, but on Tuesday night, the Carolina Hurricanes looked very much like a team playing tentative hockey and trying not to lose. Worth noting is that the Flyers limped into this game with four straight losses. My fear is that the Tuesday version of hockey offers a razor thin margin for error and seems to have a ceiling of a 2-2 tie and maybe an overtime win which will not get it done for the rest of the season.

3) More McGinn

Brock McGinn continues to lead the way in terms of at least trying to make something happen. His aggressive play in the first period led to the four-minute power play and ultimately the Canes only goal. First, McGinn won a puck on the side wall to keep it in the offensive zone. Then he aggressively attacked the puck such that young Nolan Patrick tried to do some combination of protecting himself and/or the puck from a rushing McGinn and in the process caught McGinn up high with some combination of his stick and elbow. The result was a power play goal and McGinn playing much of the rest of the game with gauze dangling from his two nostrils.

4) Elias Lindholm

Playing center for the first time in awhile, Lindholm also made positive plays along the way. His goal was just reward for pretty regularly joining the Justin Williams club and spending time parked at the top of the crease on the power play. He also had a play in which he went Erik Cole carrying the puck with speed over the blue line and forging toward the net despite having a player between him and the net. He drew a tripping penalty from Radko Gudas when Gudas underestimated his speed and upended him. Lindholm was one of a few players who seemed more engaged physically as compared to the the set of weekend losses.

5) Cam Ward

The soft goal to end it really was a shame. The defense in front of him was mostly better which kept the quality of grade A chances against him to a lower volume than the weekend, but with the current lack of scoring Ward had nothing for margin for error. And had the Canes scored twice in regulation, Ward would have earned a win. Instead, he will have to drive home wondering what might have happened in a shootout after being beaten right through the wickets on a predictable shot with three seconds remaining.

6) Slowly slipping

The loss finds the Hurricanes now one point behind Columbus for the final wild card slot and also minus a game in hand. In addition, the Hurricanes have now burned through five home games in a stretch of 11 out of 12 at home and have really nothing to show for it with a 2-2-1 record.

Next up is a weekend home back-to-back set against Vancouver on Friday and Colorado on Saturday.

The burning question is whether Peters will try to shake things up again by reinserting either Jooris or Kruger for Di Giuseppe.

Go Canes!

16 Comments

bwstanley26
on February 6, 2018 at 10:19 pm

Mmmmm Nope. That’s it for me. I’ve already all but stopped posting on sites such as this one or any of them having anything to do with the Canes. I dang sure am not spending any more of my money on tickets or merch or anything else. But after this… I just am done with ALL of it. No more watching games. No more checking scores. Nothing. My support bone has been snapped, and removed. I’ve put up with this for so long… Too long… A huge sports fan, and none more so than hockey… I just can’t do it anymore man. I get no enjoyment out of seeing them continuously fail. I told my girlfriend at the end of the first period we’d lose 2-1, and even told her I HOPED we didn’t get the OTL point, and they’d lose out, and maybe draft ONE PLAYER WORTH A F… never mind. I guess that isn’t fair to Aho. The one player that is worth something. Anyway. Its not worth it. All the Hurricanes give to me is anger and disappointment… Hockey is supposed to be for entertainment; enjoyment… It’s just too bad. I hope to talk to you guys soon. But they’ll have to give me a real reason.

BW, I am just as frustrated as you. I have the same anger and disappointment. I hope you reconsider on continuing to add your thoughts and comments to this site. Your leaving doesn’t affect the Canes. It does negatively affect all of us who participate on this site. Its the exchange of thoughts, ideas, and the dialog amongst all of us that, despite anything the Canes do on the ice, that enhances all of our days. Keep writing for those reasons.

We need more scoring. As I said, Ryan, Phil D and McGinn are a waste of bodies, absolutely have NO playmaking or scoring ability!!!
BUT: Ward is a great person, but SUCKS AS A GOALIE!!!
OMG!!! There was NOTHING ON THAT OT shot and he just let it in the 5 hole, are you kidding.
Flyers touched puck twice in OT and Ward let’s a weak shot in, 9 points lost in OT’s.
FIRE RON FRANCIS NOW!!!!
Bring in a REAL GM

Don’t worry guys. Next game we will see the magical first line of Staal, Nordsstrom and PDG.
We will also see the unusual move of pulling our goalie 59 minutes early, seeing as the goalie doesn’t really help us much.
We will be faithful to our players and not do something ill-considered and crazy, like bringing up someone from Charlotte.
Because what’s the use of having promising players if we start actually using them?
In Peters we trust, he’s got clean water in his system.

Can we all stop with the “I’m not posting on here anymore” bit? As if that is going to change the feelings of others. Announcing it just comes across as weak and fair weather. Everyone has a right to voice pleasure and displeasure, and most fans are annoyed the team is so inconsistent. If you don’t want to contribute then so be it, just leave the announcement at home.

live_free_etc., give bw a break. It’s just frustration and that’s one of the advantages of a site like this. One can vent their frustration. bw’s comments I am sure were to tell TD, RF, and BP that he’s fed up with their lack of action and not anything beyond that.

Back to hockey, I thought the power play looked sharp as well as overtime. But again another loss in opportunity.

Our biggest offensive games come at the expense of our defensive coverage, and vice versa. This means our team as currently constructed is built to be capable of all offense or all defense (but we have difficulty leveraging both). We need to replace some components to be able to handle both sides of the puck so that we are able to win these 2-1, 3-2 games more consistently.

The defense also isn’t bringing much to the table in the offensive zone. They were supposed to be better than this with all the hype about their young, but talented defense core but it hasn’t worked out that way. I think it is safe to say the team has taken a step backward in every facet of the game, offense, defense and goaltending from the previous year. Say what we will about young talent, potential, patience, etc., the bottom line is there has to be improvement in some or all areas each season, and so far we haven’t seen one facet of their game improve over the previous year. To me, that’s the troubling trend so far, not so much that individual players haven’t produced as expected.

The Hurricanes do need to improve goaltending, and I think the team still needs one more higher-end offensive forward, but I think tenininumee is on target looking at the defense.

Right now, the young group is sub-par in terms of generating offense and/or producing points and is still far from air tight defensively. The defense is not horrible, when you add those two things together, it is far from being the strength that everyone continues to hope for. There are any number of ways this team can take the next step forward, but the most likely path is that the blue line ultimately emerges and becomes closer to what many have envisioned. It just has not happened yet.

live_free…, you and tenininumee have identified one major area of concern. I think you are right in you both pointing out that this team as constructed has to either play in an all-out defensive mode and hope to pot a goal or two to win a game or if it wants to score more, just abandon defense entirely to try to score. I really think the solution to this “we can’t chew gum and play at the same time” conundrum is constructing at least one very dangerous scoring line as a starting point. That line will not have to worry about defensive play so much as it would spend most of its time on ice attacking the other team’s goal.

I actually think Staal is a good #2 center but only on a team where the 1st line is a true scoring line. Therein lies the issue; the Hurricanes just do not have a pure scoring line to complement him which makes for a team struggling to score enough goals and everyone’s goal production being under the microscope.

tenininumee
on February 7, 2018 at 5:05 pm

Not only a lack of a scoring first line, a lack of any scoring line! Which of course makes Jordan’s weaknesses all the more glaring. Its really too bad. He needs to be on another where his strengths fill a need better than they do here in Raleigh. I wouldn’t be surprised if was a player who got moved at some point. It just makes sense when you look at the makeup of the team and the huge voids in the lineup for play makers. Something has to give. He’s also one of those guys that can get a good return.

puckgod
on February 7, 2018 at 1:34 pm

Actually the ANSWER…is…so…OBVIOUS!
We need a talented SCORER!
…at this point WE HAVE NONE!
Skinner is a huge disappointment…
Noone else has the talent that we can rely on…?
…does RF even have a clue?
He has the title of GM…the M part manager…is MISSING…IN…ACTION…make that INACTION!
Must be nice to be paid to do nothing…IS IT A GOV’T JOB?

Oddly, I was dissatisfied with the canes play all game long, but thought they were the better for all but 10 mins of the second period and 5 seconds of overtime.

Why disappointed? Matt’s #2 point: tentativeness. The passing was slow and off target as if the passer wanted to be able to pull it back right up until he couldn’t reach it anymore. Particularly in transition. That is no way to play hockey, “faster harder” is the only way to pass and win.

Way to much chipping it forward and chasing when good passes were available. It looked like we were playing with our tails between our legs.

There have been times in Canes history when I wondered if they practice, and last night was one of them.

The coach is responsible and the GM accountable for having them ready every night, and they just haven’t been. It is fair to expect them to continually improve, and their seems to be a “whack-a-mole” variety of problems that keep surfacing, as though nothing gets practiced until it is a problem. A sure way to have problems continually arise.